Henry Lemoine
Henry Lemoine (14 January 1756 - 30 April 1812) was an English poet, prose author, and bookseller. Life Youth Lemoine came from a Huguenot background, the only son of Henry Lemoine (died April 1760), who had left Normandy for Jersey; his mother, Anne I. Cenette, was a native of Guernsey. He was born in Spitalfields, and baptised in the French church De La Patente in Brown's Lane there, 1 February 1756. He was educated at a free school run by French Calvinists in the East End of London. In 1770 he was apprenticed to a stationer and rag merchant in Lamb Street, Spitalfields, where, in spite of the severity of his master, he found means of indulging an omnivorous appetite for books.Seccombe, 28. From Spitalfields, Lemoine moved about 1773 to the shop of a Mr. Chatterton, a baker and bookseller. He then became for a time French master in a boarding-school at Vauxhall, kept by one Mannypenny, a post lost by the hoax that he was incapable of speaking a word of English. On coming of age in 1777 he inherited property in Jersey, purchased a bookstall in the Little Minories, and began writing for magazines. He also dispensed drugs, including the "bug-water" of Thomas Marryat's recipe. In 1780 Lemoine moved to a stand in the churchyard at Bishopsgate, Churchyard, and became acquainted with David Levi the Jewish apologist, whom he supplied with materials for his controversy with Joseph Priestley. About this period he met with Levi and other writers at the house of George Lackington in Chiswell Street. On 8 October 1788 he was admitted a freeman of the Leathersellers Company. He married the Gothic chapbook publisher, Ann Lemoine, on 8 January 1786. They had two children. Editor and bookseller In 1792 Lemoine started the Conjurors' Magazine, with embodied a translation of the treatise on physiognomy by Johann Kaspar Lavater. It sold well, but by 1793, when it became known as the Astrologer's Magazine, Lemoine's connection with it had practically ceased; it did include reprints of some stories of his from the Arminian Magazine and elsewhere. In 1793 he started the Wonderful Magazine and Marvellous Chronicle, to which he contributed biographies including one of Baron Diego Pereira d'Aguilar. He had a reputation as careless with money and a drinker. His studies were generally carried on in the street, and his books written on loose papers in public houses.Seccombe, 29. In 1794 Lemoine was in the copperplate printing business, but lost heavily, was imprisoned for debt, and separated from his wife. In 1795 he had to give up his bookshop, and peddled pamphlets and chapbooks. Simultaneously he did much hack-work, translation and compilation for London booksellers. eventually becoming the recognised doyen of his profession. Later life About 1807 Lemoine again set up in business, with a small bookstand in Parliament Street a small stand of books. Towards the end of his life he lived in the house of a Mr. Broom in Drury Lane, but he was still active with his pen, and started the Eccentric Magazine, before the conclusion of the first volume of which he died on in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Writing While with Chatterton, Lemoine wrote for an amateur dramatic club two satirical pieces in the manner of Charles Churchill, The Stinging Nettle and The Reward of Merit. Extracts from the latter appeared in The London Magazine, July and August 1780. Under the pseudonym "Allan Macleod" he attacked George Lackington in his ironical Lackington's Confessions rendered into Narrative (1804). In 1786 Lemoine published anonymously The Kentish Curate, or the History of Lamuel Lyttleton, an improper narrative romance in four volume. About this time he also issued a reprint of John Cleland's pornographic Fanny Hill. In 1790 he published a rhymed version of Robert Blair's The Grave. In 1791 he compiled Visits from the World of Spirits, or interesting anecdotes of the Dead … containing narratives of the appearances of many departed spirits; a second edition was published (Glasgow, 1845). In 1793 he edited a herbal on the lines of Nicholas Culpeper's, The Medical Uses of English Plants. Lemoine's major work was published in 1797, Typographical Antiquities: the History, Origin, and Progress of the Art of Printing … also a … complete History of the Walpolean Press … at Strawberry Hill … a … Dissertation on the Origin and Use of Paper … a … History of the Art of Wood-cutting and Engraving on Copper with the Adjudication of Literary Property … a Catalogue of remarkable Bibles and Common Prayer Books, etc., pp. 156, London. There was a second edition, with slightly altered title, 1801. Also in 1795 Lemoine supplied much verse on Charlotte and Werther to the Lady's New and Elegant Pocket Magazine. From 1803 to 1806, he was working on the bibliographical dictionary of Adam Clarke. He wrote a pseudonymous life of Abraham Goldsmid; most of his works were anonymous, and others may not be easily identified., He was a frequent contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine, and wrote odes on other hack writers, listed in William Granger's New Wonderful Museum. Publications Poetry *''The Grave: A poem; altered into rhime, from the blank verse of Robert Blair''. London: R. Hawes, for H. Lemoine / J. Parsons, 1790. Novel *''The Kentish Curate; or, The history of Lamuel Lyttleton, a foundling''. (4 volumes), London: J. Parsons, 1786. *''The Humorous Story of Mrs. Gilpin's Return from Edmonton; being the sequel to Johnny Gilpin of Cheapside''. London: J. Harris / J. Wallis, 1808; Philadelphia: Wm. Charles, 1815. Non-fiction *''Modern Manhood; or, The art and practice of English boxing''. Publisher: London: J. Parsons / A. Cleugh / J. Sudbury / H. Lemoine, 1788? *''Typographical Antiquities: History, origin, and progress, of the art of printing, from its first invention in Germany to the end of the Seventeenth Century ; and from its introduction into England, by Caxton, to the present time. London: S. Fisher, 1797. *''The Art of Speaking: Upon an entire new plan. London: Lee & Hurst, 1797. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Henry Lemoine, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 2, 2016. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Aug. 2, 2016. Notes External links ;Poems *"Ode to Contemplation" ;About *Henry Lemoine (1756-1812) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 * Lemoine, Henry Category:1756 births Category:1812 deaths Category:English writers Category:English magazine editors Category:English poets Category:English male poets Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:English booksellers